Chapter 29. The Warrior vs. the Military
Day-0, 6AM.
The key members of the mission had all been called into the War Room.
“I’m sure everyone here knows of the plans at this point, but I’ll go over them one last time just in case.”
The American strategist used his pointer to point at the map of the town.
“We will be splitting the town into twenty six sectors. The battle will occur at areas F, G, and H. Our supplies are located in area Z, so please try not to take the fight over to that area.”
This much already made the battleground 350,000 square meters.
“The Warrior is set to arrive at 13:30. This may be off by up to twenty minutes. The strategy might have to be changed according to the scenario, but the basic gist of the plan goes like this.”
The strategist circled the bridge.
“First off, we’ll set up a group of soldiers to guard the center of the bridge. This will be the interdiction line for the Warrior. If the Warrior manages to get out, consider the plan a failure, and focus on keeping the soldiers alive.”
Did the military think that there was a higher chance of failure rather than success?
“Once he successfully crosses the bridge, we will blow it up, and seal him up inside the town. Once this is done, the task force will activate the barrier to keep him inside.”
The strategist mentioned after this that only visual communication was allowed before the barrier was set up.
“After this, the First Subjugation Group will make its move. They will get into a net formation all over sectors F~H. They will lead the Warrior to sector J, trying to bait out his blessing magic.”
Blessing magic.
The Warrior carried three spellstones with him, and using one of them activated an hour long blessing magic that had a six-hour cooldown.
“The second barrier will be cast when the target uses his spellstone. We will disable the blessing there. After that point, the Second Subjugation Battalion will come into play.”
Many people from the First Subjugation Battalion were expected to die here, but it wasn’t like they could risk losing a person with a power in this strategy. Life wasn’t equal, after all. A strategy that made use of sacrifices rather than pure firepower from the start… The saint seemed quite depressed.
“Storm will work with the Hundred Eight Eyes in taking down the Warrior’s blessing. This is the most important part. You must secure the safety of the members of the Hundred Eight Eyes. If anything happens, teleporters must evacuate the Hundred Eight Eyes immediately.”
Demon eye users had quite a bit of firepower, but they were quite slow at the same time. That’s why they worked with Storm to increase their mobility. They must cause quite a bit of annoyance to their enemies. After all, they were quite similar to artillery guns moving at the speed of fighter jets.
I sent a message to the grim-faced saint as a joke.
[You need to see the fairy?] […You want to die?] [Too late.] [Focus, damn it.]
The strategist began to introduce things we had to be wary of after finishing up his talk about the plan.
“The battalion aid station is located on the other side of the bridge, and…”
The briefing ended after two hours. After this, we were all assigned to our respective positions. The current time was 1:20PM and it was almost time. I raised my eye to the sky and observed the town from above. It seemed like one of the most peaceful things that I had ever seen. But this would soon turn into a warzone.
Normally, wars in this world would start off with wizards firing off their long-range magic spells. Once the magic landed, the infantry would go in. The squads of ability users would attempt to assassinate the enemy commander.
But this time, the order was switched. The infantry went first, and the wizards and the ability users came last. The reason for this was simple.
The enemy just didn’t die.
Knowing this, the military just gave up trying to use firepower to defeat the Warrior. After all, the one who came up with this plan wasn’t a complete idiot. Well, he seemed to have missed a critical point in the mission, though.
“He’s here.”
An observer raised his flag high up in the air. The flag was yellow, signifying the Warrior’s arrival. I observed the Warrior with my floating eye. He was well over two meters tall, and was all around well-built. He had quite the friendly face. I had expected him to be muscular and large, but that didn’t really seem to be the case.
“Ah…”
I had realized that I wouldn’t be able to beat the Warrior. I used to be called the strongest back in my world, but the standards for this world was so out of whack that I just didn’t think I could beat him.
“Hey, old man, stop.”
The saint grabbed my cape when I tried to escape.
“Come back.”
I ended up sitting back on the dirt.
“We need to run. We can’t rely on tactics we don’t even know will work.”
This wasn’t someone we could take on with just numbers. He was a superhuman that had surpassed death. There wasn’t a 100% chance of my plan working, which meant that it was more profitable for me to run away. But the saint seemed to think differently.
“If you run away, more people will die. We have to block him here…”
Her hand gripped onto my cloak tightly. She must’ve resolved herself last night. She decided that she would sacrifice the minority to save the majority. Without even realizing that she was part of the minority. I felt the need to tell this idiot saint something at this time.
“People die. Even now, three people are dying every second. So instead of caring about other people, why don’t you care about yourself for once? Don’t you remember what I told you last night?”
“This is my duty.”
The saint sounded steadfast. I just decided to close my mouth. There was no need to provoke her any further. Even if what I said turned out to be correct, I wouldn’t try to argue my viewpoint with her.
After all, I wasn’t normal.
The flag changed to blue. The target was almost near the designated area. Whistle blows began to sound repeatedly. Immediately after this, the demolitionists pressed the device that was to destroy the bridge.
–Baang!
The shockwave shook the town.
Kuoooh! Clack, drrrr- drrr-.
The windows of the nearby building began to vibrate rapidly. Dust began to fall off the roofs. The first order of action was to destroy the bridge. The isolated Warrior was looking at the broken bridge with a dumbfounded face.
Of course he’d be confused. The attack wasn’t aimed at him, after all.
Next, the wizards would come into play.
“I submit to the contract.”
“I shall follow our oral agreement.”
Shaaah.
The barrier that the saint and Necro had created activated and formed a dome around the town. The area of effect even went underground. Now, the Warrior had no means of escape.
“The first barrier has been activated. For the next six hours, those apart from a select few teleporters will not be able to exit the area.”
A messenger in front of the saint saluted and ran away somewhere. The explosion and the activation of the barrier. I wonder how the Warrior would respond? I would’ve either tried to run the moment I found out there was a trap, or would’ve tried to hide. It was dangerous to fight enemies that I didn’t know about after all.
But the enemy was a hero.
The moment he realized something was afoot, he stepped into the trap with the intent of finding out what was going on, and with the intent of saving everyone trapped inside.
So he hadn’t realized it yet.
He felt that something was a little off due to the soldiers disguised as villagers, but ‘because he wasn’t attacked yet’, he didn’t do anything rash. He probably didn’t want to get any innocent bystanders hurt. This was probably a hero’s greatest weakness.
A villain would’ve immediately tried to secure a prisoner… The soldiers hidden near the Warrior raised their weapons. What was inside were modified bullets with a heightened killing ability. They were like dum-dum bullets or G2R RIP that were injected with nicotine. Perhaps the only good thing the summoned people did for this world was the creation of modern weapons. It all started with a nameless person using his power to recreate a modern weapon. Because primitive guns were already being circulated in the world, crafters were able to easily replicate this modern gun, which immediately spread across the world.
“A little forward…”
The machine gunners inside the building put their fingers on the triggers. Right now, the Warrior was located in the town square. It was strangely quiet here. No one could be seen, but gazes and killing intent could be felt everywhere. The Warrior was sure that this was a trap, but he didn’t turn back. He kept walking forward. Because-
“…Mr. Henry?”
There was a member of the rebellion tied up inthe middle of the town square. The people of the military here were quite meticulous. They resorted to just about anything in order to complete their mission. The hostage desperately tried to tell the Warrior to stay away, but the Warrior didn’t stop.
“Mmph! Mph! Mmmph!”
The rivets on the steel chair he was tied to almost seemed to fall off due to all the shaking. He was desperately trying to help his ally, despite all the torture he went through. The Warrior clearly read the hostage’s intent, but kept walking anyway. And the moment he touched the hostage.
A spellstone prepared earlier exploded, and turned the whole area into a swamp.
Ratatatatatat-!
The soldiers immediately began showering the area with bullets. There were countless bullets being shot from three different directions. Curtains ripped apart in buildings, and pieces of wood splintered everywhere from the destruction. The snipers on top put their hands on the triggers. Their weapon was a monster subjugating sniper rifle. What was in their sights was the Warrior, who was letting out orange sparks from his body. Yet, the Warrior was extremely calm. The snipers trembled a little bit when they saw that the Warrior didn’t even twitch.
…Did the bullets have no effect?
The man didn’t even seem to try to dodge them. In fact, he was completely ignoring the bullets. It made one realize just how high the Warrior’s defense stat was. The Warrior looked down at the hostage, who was now just red mush on the chair, and raised his head.
Clang! Clang!
Bullets harmlessly bounced off of the Warrior’s body. The man lowered his head a little bit, then turned around. The soldiers ran out of the buildings and surrounded the Warrior with barbed wires. They set it up in the form of a spider’s web, in order to contain the warrior. They then set up behind the web with their War Hammer Pistols and the Iron Shield Pistols. These were weapons that fused guns with hammers and guns. They might not be the most effective weapons, but their destructive power was guaranteed. The Warrior probably wouldn’t be able to get out of that formation easily.
“In eras like this, savages who fight with swords and not guns stand no chance against us!”
A commander shouted this to the soldiers.
“Let’s show the world that the title of a hero is but a thing of the past!”
Unlike his brave demeanor, the commander’s voice was trembling violently. He was unable to erase the intense fear that was on his face.
Tatatatata! Pii! Tatatatatata!
The bullets that bounced off of the Warrior were forming a little mound under him at this point. The Warrior flipped his brown hair once, then waved his hand in the air.
Piin!
A sharp sound resounded through the air. The machine gunners and the snipers fell down. Next, he waved his hand behind him. With these two hand motions, the entire square became silent. None of the soldiers that had just been firing their weapons were moving.
“What in the…?”
The commander asked this with a trembling voice. He must have not seen it. The Warrior just stiffened his hair and used it as a projectile against the soldiers. He must be able to modify his body like me.
“I thought something was off… So you were the soldiers of Haze.”
The Warrior now realized who the enemy was. That should mean that the Warrior’s next move would be to ‘escape’, but…
“You better be ready for daring to fire at me.”
The commander gripped his heart in pain when the Warrior glared directly at him. It was coming. The Warrior lowered his body, and put his finger into the stone floor with just pure strength
Pshh.
His hand scooped up stone like ice cream from the floor. When he applied some pressure to it, the stone split to multiple pieces, causing stone dust to spill out of his hand.